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ETERNAL  LIFE. 


I 


Eternal 
Life 


By  Professor 
Henry 
Drummond 


Philadelphia 
Henry  Altemu* 


Cop3^ight  1896  by  Henry  Altemna. 


8tMk 
Annex 

BT 

ETERNAL  LIFE. 

"  This  is  Life  Eternal— that  they  might  know  Thee, 
the  True  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  has  sent." 
— Jesus  Christ. 

"  Perfect  correspondence  would  be  perfect  life.  Were 
there  no  changes  in  the  environment  but  such  as  the 
organism  had  adapted  clianges  to  meet,  and  were  it 
never  to  fail  in  the  efficiency  with  which  it  met  them, 
there  would  be  eternal  existence  and  eternal  knowl- 
edge."—IZerberi  Spencer. 

One  of  the  most  startling  achievements  of  re- 
cent science  is  a  definition  of  Eternal  Life.  To 
the  religious  mind  this  is  a  contribution  of  im- 
mense moment.  For  eighteen  hundred  years  only 
one  definition  of  Life  Eternal  was  before  the 
world.     Now  there  are  two. 

Through  all  these  centuries  revealed  religion 
had  this  doctrine  to  itself.  Ethics  had  a  voice,  as 
well  as  Christianity,  on  the  question  of  the  sum- 
mum  hoyium  ;  Philosophy  ventured  to  speculate  on 
the  Being  of  a  God.  But  no  source  outside  Chris- 
tianity contributed  anything  to  the  doctrine  of 
Eternal  Life.  Apart  from  Revelation,  this  great 
truth  was  unguaranteed.  It  was  the  one  thing  in 
t^:e  Christian  system  that  most  needed  verifica- 
tion from  without,  yet  none  was  forthcoming. 
And  never  has  any  further  light  been  thrown 

5 


6  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

upon  the  question  why  in  its  very  nature  the 
Christian  Life  should  be  Eternal.  Christianity 
itself  even  upon  this  point  has  been  obscure.  Its 
decision  upon  the  bare  fact  is  authoritative  and 
specific.  But  as  to  what  there  is  in  the  Spiritual 
Life  necessarily  endowing  it  with  the  element  of 
Eternity,  the  maturest  theology  is  all  but  silent. 

It  has  been  reserved  for  modern  biology  at  once 
to  defend  and  illuminate  this  central  truth  of  the 
Christian  faith.  And  hence  in  the  interests  of 
religion,  practical  and  evidential,  this  second  and 
scientific. definition  of  Eternal  Life  is  to  be  hailed 
as  an  announcement  of  commanding  interest. 
Why  it  should  not  yet  have  received  the  recogni- 
tion of  religious  thinkers — for  .already  it  has  lain 
some  years  unnoticed — is  not  difficult  to  under- 
stand. The  belief  in  Science  as  an  aid  to  faith  is 
not  yet  ripe  enough  to  warrant  men  in  searching 
there  for  witnesses  to  the  highest  Christian  truths. 
The  inspiration  of  Nature,  it  is  thought,  extends 
to  the  humbler  doctrines  alone.  And  yet  the  rev- 
erent inquirer  who  guides  his  steps  in  the  right 
direction  may  find  even  now  in  the  still  dim  twi- 
light of  the  scientific  world  much  that  will  illumin- 
ate and  intensify  his  sublimest  faith.  Here,  at 
least,  comes,  and  comes  unbidden,  the  opportunity 
of  testing  the  most  vital  point  of  the  Christian 
system.  Hitherto  the  Christian  philosopher  has 
remained  content  with  the  scientific  evidence 
against  Annihilation.  Or,  with  Butler,  he  has 
reasoned  from  the  Metamorphoses  of  Insects  to  a 
future  life.     Or  again,  with  the  authors  of  "  The 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  7 

Unseen  Universe,"  the  apologist  has  constructed 
elaborate,  and  certainly  impressive,  arguments 
upon  the  Law  of  Continuity.  But  now  we  may 
draw  nearer.  For  the  first  time  Science  touches 
Christianity  positively  on  the  doctrine  of  Immortal- 
ity. It  confronts  us  with  an  actual  definition  of 
an  Eternal  Life,  based  on  a  full  and  rigidly  accu- 
rate examination  of  the  necessary  conditions. 
Science  does  not  pretend  that  it  can  fulfil  these 
conditions.  Its  votaries  make  no  claim  to  possess 
the  Eternal  Life.  It  simply  postulates  the  requisite 
conditions  without  concerning  itself  whether  any 
organism  should  ever  appear,  or  does  now  exist, 
which  might  fulfil  them.  The  claim  of  religion, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  that  there  are  organisms 
which  possess  Eternal  Life.  And  the  problem  for 
us  to  solve  is  this :  Do  those  who  profess  to  pos- 
sess Eternal  Life  fulfil  the  conditions  required  by 
Science,  or  are  they  different  conditions  ?  In  a 
word.  Is  the  Christian  conception  of  Eternal  Life 
scientific  ? 

It  may  be  unnecessary  to  notice  at  the  outset 
that  the  definition  of  Eternal  Life  drawn  up  by 
Science  was  framed  without  reference  to  religion. 
It  must  indeed  have  been  the  last  thought  with 
the  thinker  to  whom  we  chiefly  owe  it,  that  in  un- 
folding the  conception  of  a  Life  in  its  very  nature 
necessarily  eternal,  he  was  contributing  to  Theol- 
ogy- 

j\Ir.  Herbert  Spencer — for  it  is  to  him  we  owe 
it — would  be  the  first  to  admit  the  impartialit}'  of 
his  definition ;  and  from  the  connection  in  which 


8  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

it  occurs  in  his  writings,  it  is  obvious  that  religion 
was  not  even  present  to  Lis  miud.  He  is  analyz- 
ing with  minute  care  the  relations  between  Envi- 
ronment and  Life.  He  unfolds  the  principle  ac- 
cording to  which  Life  is  high  or  low,  long  or  short. 
He  shows  why  organisms  live  and  why  they  die. 
And  finally  he  defines  a  condition  of  things  in 
which  an  organism  would  never  die — in  which  it 
would  eujoy  a  perpetual  and  perfect  Life.  This 
to  him  is,  of  course,  but  a  speculation.  Life 
Eternal  is  a  biological  conceit.  The  conditions 
necessary  to  an  Eternal  Life  do  not  exist  in  the 
natural  world.  So  that  the  definition  is  alto- 
gether impartial  and  independent.  A  Perfect 
Life,  to  Science,  is  simply  a  thing  which  is  theoret- 
ically possible — like  a  Perfect  Vacuum. 

Before  giving,  in  so  many  words,  the  definition 
of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  it  will  render  it  fully  in- 
telligible if  we  gradually  lead  up  to  it  by  a  brief 
rehearsal  of  the  few  and  simple  biological  facts 
on  which  it  is  based.  In  considering  the  subject 
of  Death,  we  have  formerly  seen  that  there  are 
degrees  of  Life.  By  this  is  meant  that  some  lives 
have  more  and  fuller  correspondence  with  Environ- 
ment than  others.  The  amount  of  correspond- 
ence, again,  is  determined  by  the  greater  or  less 
complexity  of  the  organism.  Thus  a  simple  or- 
ganism like  the  Amoeba  is  possessed  of  very  few 
correspondences.  It  is  a  mere  sac  of  transparent 
structureless  jelly  for  which  organization  has  done 
almost  nothing,  and  hence  it  can  only  communi- 
cate with  the  smallest  possible  area  of  Environ- 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  9 

ment.  An  insect,  in  virtue  of  its  more  complex 
structure,  corresponds  with  a  wider  area.  Nature 
has  endowed  it  witii  special  faculties  for  reaching 
out  to  the  Environment  on  many  sides ;  it  has 
more  life  than  the  Amoeba.  In  other  words,  it  is 
a  higher  animal.  Man  again,  whose  body  is  still 
further  differentiated,  or  broken  up  into  different 
correspondences,  finds  himself  en  rapport  with  his 
surroundings  to  a  further  extent.  And  therefore 
he  is  higher  still,  more  living  still.  And  this  law, 
that  the  degree  of  Life  varies  with  the  degree  of 
correspondence,  holds  to  the  minutest  detail 
throughout  the  entire  range  of  living  things.  Life 
becomes  fuller  and  fuller,  richer  and  richer,  more 
and  more  sensitive  and  responsive  to  an  ever- 
widening  Environment  as  we  rise  in  the  chain  of 
being. 

Now  it  will  speedily  appear  that  a  distinct  rela- 
tion exists,  and  must  exist,  between  complexity 
and  longevity.  Death  being  brought  about  by  the 
failure  of  an  organism  to  adjust  itself  to  some 
change  in  the  Environment,  it  follows  that  those 
organisms  which  are  able  to  adjust  themselves 
most  readily  and  successfully  will  live  the  longest. 
They  will  continue  time  after  time  to  effect  the 
appropriate  adjustment,  and  their  power  of  doing 
BO  will  be  exactly  proportionate  to  their  complexity 
— that  is,  to  the  amount  of  Environment  they  can 
control  with  their  correspondences.  There  are, 
for  example,  in  the  Environment  of  every  animal 
certain  things  which  are  directly  or  indirectly 
dangerous    to    Life.     If  its  equipment  of   cor- 


10  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

respondences  is  not  complete  enough  to  enable  it 
to  avoid  these  dangers  in  all  possible  circum- 
stances, it  must  sooner  or  later  succumb.  The 
organism  then  with  the  most  perfect  set  of  cor- 
respondences, that  is,  the  highest  and  most  com- 
plex organism,  has  an  obvious  advantage  over  less 
complex  forms.  It  can  adjust  itself  more  per- 
fectly and  frequently.  But  this  is  just  the  biolog- 
ical vi^ay  of  saying  that  it  can  live  the  longest. 
And  hence  the  relation  between  complexity  and 
longevity  may  be  expressed  thus — the  most  com- 
plex organisms  are  the  longest  lived. 

To  state  and  illustrate  the  proposition  con- 
versely may  make  the  point  still  further  clear. 
The  less  highly  organized  an  animal  is,  the  less 
will  be  its  chance  of  remaining  in  lengthened  cor- 
respondence with  its  Environment.  At  some  time 
or  other  in  its  career  circumstances  are  sure  to 
occur  to  which  the  comparatively  immobile  organ- 
ism finds  itself  structurally  unable  to  respond. 
Thus  a  Medusa  tossed  ashore  by  a  wave,  finds 
itself  so  out  of  correspondence  with  its  new  sur- 
roundings that  its  life  must  pay  the  forfeit. 
Had  it  been  able  by  internal  change  to  adapt  it- 
self to  external  change — to  correspond  sufficiently 
with  the  new  environment,  as  for  example  to 
crawl,  as  an  eel  would  have  done,  back  into  that 
environment  with  which  it  had  completer  cor- 
respondence— its  life  might  have  been  spared. 
But  had  this  happened  it  would  continue  to  live 
henceforth  only  so  long  as  it  could  continue  in 
correspondence   with    all    the    circumstances  in 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  11 

which  it  might  find  itself.  Even  if,  however,  it 
became  complex  enough  to  resist  the  ordinary  and 
direct  dangers  of  its  environment,  it  might  still  be 
out  of  correspondence  with  others.  A  naturalist 
for  instance,  might  take  advantage  of  its  want  of 
correspondence  with  particular  sights  and  sounds 
to  capture  it  for  his  cabinet,  or  the  sudden  drop- 
ping of  a  yacht's  anchor  or  the  turn  of  a  screw 
might  cause  its  untimely  death. 

Again,  in  the  case  of  a  bird  in  virtue  of  its 
more  complex  organization,  there  is  command  over 
a  much  larger  area  of  environment.  It  can  take 
precautions  such  as  the  Medusa  could  not ;  it  has 
increased  facilities  for  securing  food;  its  adjust- 
ments all  round  are  more  complex ;  and  therefore 
it  ought  to  be  able  to  maintain  its  Life  for  a 
longer  period.  There  is  still  a  large  area,  how- 
ever, over  which  it  has  no  control.  Its  power  of 
internal  change  is  not  complete  enough  to  afford 
it  perfect  correspondence  with  all  external  changes, 
and  its  tenure  of  Life  is  to  that  extent  insecure. 
Its  correspondence,  moreover,  is  limited  even  with 
regard  to  those  external  conditions  with  which  it 
has  been  partially  established.  Thus  a  bird  in 
ordinary  circumstances  has  no  difficulty  in  adapt- 
ing itself  to  changes  of  temperature,  but  if  these 
are  varied  beyond  the  point  at  which  its  capacity 
of  adjustment  begins  to  fail — for  example,  during 
an  extreme  winter — the  organism  being  unable  to 
meet  the  condition  must  perish.  The  human 
organism,  on  the  other  hand,  can  respond  to  this 
external  condition,  as  well  as  to  countless  other 


12  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

vicissitudes  under  which  lower  forms  would  inevi- 
tably succumb.  Man's  adjustments  are  to  the 
largest  known  area  of  Environment,  and  hence  he 
ought  to  be  able  furthest  to  prolong  his  Life. 

It  becomes  evident,  then,  that  as  we  ascend  in 
the  scale  of  Life  we  rise  also  in  the  scale  of  lon- 
gevity. The  lowest  organisms  are,  as  a  rule, 
shortlived,  and  the  rate  of  mortality  diminishes 
more  or  less  regularly  as  we  ascend  in  the  animal 
scale.  So  extraordinary  indeed  is  the  mortality 
among  lowly-organized  forms  that  in  most  cases  a 
compensation  is  actuallj?^  provided,  nature  endow- 
ing them  with  a  marvellously  increased  fertility  in 
order  to  guard  against  absolute  extinction.  Al- 
most all  lower  forms  are  furnished  not  only  with 
great  reproductive  powers,  but  with  different 
methods  of  propagation,  by  which,  in  various  cir- 
cumstances, and  in  an  incredibly  short  time,  the 
species  can  be  indefinitely  multiplied.  Ehrenberg 
found  that  by  the  repeated  subdivisions  of  a  single 
Paramecium^  no  fewer  than  268,000,000  similar 
organisms  might  be  produced  in  one  month.  This 
power  steadily  decreases  as  we  rise  higher  in  the 
scale,  until  forms  are  reached  in  which  one,  two, 
or  at  most  three,  come  into  being  at  a  birth.  It 
decreases,  however  because  it  is  no  longer  needed. 
These  forms  have  a  much  longer  lease  of  Life. 
And  it  may  be  taken  as  a  rule,  although  it  has 
exceptions,  that  complexity  in  animal  organisms 
is  always  associated  with  longevity. 

It  may  be  objected  that  these  illustrations  are 
taken    merely    from    morbid     conditions.     But 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  13 

whether  the  Life  be  cut  short  by  accident  or  by 
disease  the  principle  is  the  same.  All  dissolution 
is  brought  about  practically  in  the  same  way.  A 
certain  condition  in  the  Environment  fails  to  be 
met  by  a  corresponding  condition  in  the  organism, 
and  this  is  death.  And  conversely  the  more  an 
organism  in  virtue  of  its  complexity  can  adapt 
itself  to  all  the  parts  of  its  Environment,  the 
longer  it  will  live.  "  It  is  manifest  a  'priori^''  says 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  "  that  since  changes  in  the 
physical  state  of  the  environment,  as  also  those 
mechanical  actions  and  those  variations  of  avail- 
able food  which  occur  in  it,-  are  liable  to  stop  the 
processes  going  on  in  the  organism  ;  and  since  the 
adaptive  changes  in  the  organism  have  the  effects 
of  directly  or  indirectly  counterbalancing  these 
changes  in  the  environment,  it  follows  that  the 
life  of  the  organism  will  be  short  or  long,  low  or 
high,  according  to  the  extent  to  which  changes  iu 
the  environment  are  met  by  corresponding  changes 
in  the  organism.  Allowing  a  margin  for  pertur- 
bations, the  life  will  continue  only  while  the  cor- 
respondence continues  ;  the  completeness  of  the 
life  will  be  proportionate  to  the  completeness  of 
the  correspondence  ;  and  the  life  will  be  perfect 
only  when  the  correspondence  is  perfect."  ^ 

We  are  now  all  but  in  sight  of  our  scientific 
definition  of  Eternal  Life.  The  desideratum  is 
an  organism  with  a  correspondence  of  a  very  ex- 
ceptional kind.  It  must  lie  beyond  the  reach  of 
those  "  mechanical  actions  "  and  those  "  variations 

>  "Principles  of  Biology,"  p.  82. 


14  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

of  available  food,"  which  are  "  liable  to  stop  the 
processes  going  on  in  the  organism."  Before  we 
reach  an  Eternal  Life  we  must  pass  beyond  that 
point  at  which  all  ordinary  correspondences  inevi- 
tably cease.  We  must  find  an  organism  so  high 
and  complex,  that  at  some  point  in  its  develop- 
ment it  shall  liave  added  a  correspondence  which 
organic  death  is  powerless  to  arrest.  We  must,  in 
short,  pass  beyond  that  finite  region  where  the  cor- 
respondences depend  on  evanescent  and  material 
media,  and  enter  a  further  region  where  the  En- 
vironment corresponded  with  is  itself  Eternal. 
Such  an  Environment  exists.  The  Environment 
of  the  Spiritual  world  is  outside  the  influence  of 
these  "  mechanical  actions,"  which  sooner  or  later 
interrupt  the  processes  going  on  in  all  finite  organ- 
isms. If  then  we  can  find  an  organism  which  has 
established  a  correspondence  with  the  spiritual 
world,  that  correspondence  will  possess  the  ele- 
ments of  eternity — ^provided  only  one  other  con- 
dition be  fulfilled. 

That  condition  is  that  the  Environment  be  per- 
fect. If  it  is  not  perfect,  if  it  is  not  the  highest, 
if  it  is  endowed  with  the  finite  quality  of  change, 
there  can  be  no  guarantee  that  the  Life  of  its  cor- 
respondents will  be  eternal.  Some  change  might 
occur  in  it  which  the  correspondents  had  no  adap- 
tive changes  to  meet,  and  Life  would  cease.  But 
grant  a  spiritual  organism  in  perfect  correspond- 
ence with  a  perfect  spiritual  Environment,  and 
the  conditions  necessary  to  Eternal  Life  are  satis- 
fied. 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  15 

The  exact  terms  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  defi- 
nition of  Eternal  Life  may  now  be  given.  And  it 
will  be  seen  that  they  include  essentially  the  con- 
ditions here  laid  down.  "  Perfect  correspondence 
would  be  perfect  life.  Were  there  no  changes  in 
the  environment  but  such  as  the  organism  had 
adapted  changes  to  meet,  and  were  it  never  to  fail 
in  the  efficiency  with  which  it  met  them,  there 
would  be  eternal  existence  and  eternal  knowl- 
edge." ^  Reserving  the  question  as  to  tlie  possible 
fulfilment  of  these  conditions,  let  us  turn  for  a 
moment  to  the  definition  of  Eternal  Life  laid 
down  by  Christ.  Let  us  place  it  alongside  the 
definition  of  Science,  and  mark  the  points  of  con- 
tact. Uninterrupted  correspondence  with  a  per- 
fect Environment  is  Eternal  Life  according  to 
Science.  "  This  is  Life  Eternal,"  said  Christ,  "  that 
they  may  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  has  sent."  ^  Life  Eternal 
is  to  know  God.  To  know  God  is  to  "  correspond  " 
with  God.  To  correspond  with  God  is  to  corres- 
pond with  a  Perfect  Environment.  And  the  or- 
ganism which  attains  to  this,  in  the  nature  of 
things  must  live  for  ever.  Here  is  "  eternal  ex- 
istence and  eternal  knowledge." 

The  main  point  of  agreement  between  the 
scientific  and  the  religious  definition  is  that  Life 
consists  in  a  peculiar  and  personal  relation  defined 
es  a  "correspondence."  This  conception,  that 
Life  consists  in  correspondences,  has  been  so  abund- 

'  "Principles  of  Biology,"  p.  88. 
=  John  xvii. 

13 


18  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

antly  illustrated  already  that  it  is  now  unneces- 
sary to  discuss  it  further.  All  Life  indeed  con- 
sists essentially  in  correspondences  with  various 
Environments.  The  artist's  life  is  a  correspond- 
ence with  art ;  the  musician's  with  music.  To  cut 
them  off  from  these  Environments  is  in  that  re- 
lation to  cut  off  their  Life.  To  be  cut  off  from 
all  Environment  is  death.  To  find  a  new  En- 
vironment again  and  cultivate  relation  with  it  is 
to  find  a  new  Life.  To  live  is  to  correspond,  and 
to  correspond  is  to  live.  So  much  is  true  in 
Science.  But  it  is  also  true  in  Religion.  And  it 
is  of  great  importance  to  observe  that  to  Religion 
also  the  conception  of  Life  is  a  correspondence. 
No  truth  of  Christianity  has  been  more  ignorantly 
or  wilfully  travestied  than  the  doctrine  of  Im- 
mortality. The  popular  idea,  in  spite  of  a  hun- 
dred protests,  is  that  Eternal  Life  is  to  live  for- 
ever. A  single  glance  at  the  locus  classicus,  might 
have  made  this  error  impossible.  There  we  are 
told  that  Life  Eternal  is  not  to  live.  This  is  Life 
Eternal — to  know.  And  yet — and  it  is  a  notori- 
ous instance  of  the  fact  that  men  who  are  opposed 
to  Religion  will  take  their  conceptions  of  its  pro- 
foundest  truths  from  mere  vuglar  perversions— 
this  view  still  represents  to  many  cultivated  men 
the  Scriptural  doctrine  of  Eternal  Life.  From 
time  to  time  the  taunt  is  thrown  at  Religion, 
not  unseldom  from  lips  which  Science  ought  to 
have  taught  more  caution,  that  the  Future  Life 
of  Christianity  is  simply  a  prolonged  existence, 
an  eternal  monotony,  a  blind  and  indefinite  con- 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  17 

tinuance  of  being.  The  Bible  never  could  com- 
mit itself  to  any  such  empty  platitude;  nor  could 
Christianity  ever  offer  to  the  world  a  hope  so 
colorless.  Not  that  Eternal  Life  has  nothinig  to 
do  with  everlastingness.  That  is  part  of  the  con- 
ception. And  it  is  this  aspect  of  the  question 
that  first  arrests  us  in  the  held  of  Science.  But 
even  Science  has  more  in  its  definition  than 
longevity.  It  has  a  correspondence  and  an  En* 
vironment ;  and  although  it  cannot  fill  up  these 
terms  for  Religion,  it  can  indicate  at  least  the 
nature  of  the  relation,  the  kind  of  thing  that  is 
meant  by  Life.  Science  speaks  to  us  indeed  of 
much  more  than  numbers  of  years.  It  defines 
degrees  of  Life.  It  explains  a  widening  Environ- 
ment.  It  unfolds  the  relation  between  a  widen- 
ing Environment  and  increasing  complexity  in 
organisms.  And  if  it  has  no  absolute  contribu- 
tion to  the  content  of  Religion,  its  analogies  are 
not  limited  to  a  point.  It  yields  to  Immortality, 
and  this  is  the  most  that  Science  can  do  in  any 
case,  the  broad  framework  for  a  doctrine. 

The  further  definition,  moreover,  of  this  corre- 
spondence as  knowing  is  in  the  highest  degree 
significant.  Is  not  this  the  precise  quality  in  an 
Eternal  correspondence  which  the  analogies  of 
Science  would  prepare  us  to  look  for?  Longevity 
is  associated  with  complexity.  And  complexity  in 
organisms  is  manifested  by  the  successive  addition 
of  correspondences,  each  richer  and  larger  than 
those  which  have  gone  before.  The  differentiation, 
therefore,  of  the  spiritual  organism  ought  to  be 


18  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

signalized  by  the  addition  of  the  highest  possible  cor- 
respondence. It  is  not  essential  to  the  idea  that  the 
correspondence  should  be  altogether  novel ;  it  is 
necessary  rather  that  it  should  not.  An  al- 
together new  correspondence  appearing  suddenly 
without  shadow  or  prophecy  would  be  a  violation 
of  continuity.  What  we  should  expect  would  be 
something  new,  and  yet  something  that  we  were 
already  prepared  for.  We  should  look  for  a  fur- 
ther development  in  harmony  with  current  devel- 
opments ;  the  extension  of  the  last  and  highest 
correspondence  in  a  new  and  higher  direction. 
And  this  is  exactly  what  we  have.  In  the  world 
with  which  biology  deals,  Evolution  culminates  in 
Knowledge. 

At  whatever  point  in  the  zoological  scale  this 
correspondence,  or  set  of  correspondence?,  begins, 
it  is  certain  there  is  nothing  higher.  In  its  stunted 
infancy  merely,  when  we  meet  with  its  rudest  be- 
ginnings in  animal  intelligence,  it  is  a  thing  so 
wonderful,  as  to  strike  every  thoughtful  and 
reverent  observer  with  awe.  Even  among  the 
invertebrates  so  marvellously  are  these  or  kindred 
powers  displayed,  that  naturalists  do  not  hesitate 
now,  on  the  ground  of  intelligence  at  least,  to 
classify  some  of  the  humblest  creatures  next  to  man 
himself.^  Nothing  in  nature,  indeed,  is  so  unlike 
the  rest  of  nature,  so  prophetic  of  what  is  be3'ond 
it,  so  supernatural.  And  as  manifested  in  Man  who 
crowns  creation  with  his  all-embracing  conscious- 

'  Vide  Sir  John  Lubbock's  "  Ants,  Bees,  and  Wasps," 
pp.  1,  181. 


I 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  19 

ness,  there  is  but  one  word  to  describe  his  knowl- 
edge ;  it  is  Divine.  If  then  from  this  point  there 
is  to  be  any  further  Evolution,  this  surely  must  be 
the  correspondence  in  which  it  shall  take  place  ? 
This  correspondence  is  great  enough  to  demand 
development ;  and  yet  it  is  little  enough  to  need 
it.  The  magnificence  of  what  it  has  achieved 
relatively,  is  the  pledge  of  the  possibility  of  more  ; 
the  insignificance  of  its  conquest  absolutely  in- 
volves the  probability  of  still  richer  triumphs.  If 
anything,  in  short,  in  humanity  is  to  go  on  it 
must  be  this.  Other  correspondences  may  con- 
tinue likewise ;  others,  again,  we  can  well  afford 
to  leave  behind.  But  this  cannot  cease.  This  cor- 
respondence —or  this  set  of  correspondences,  for  it 
is  very  complex — is  it  not  that  to  which  men  with 
one  consent  would  attach  Eternal  Life  ?  Is  there 
anything  else  to  wliich  they  would  attach  it  ?  Is 
anything  better  conceivable,  anything  worthier, 
fuller,  nobler,  anything  which  would  represent  a 
higher  form  of  Evolution  or  offer  a  more  perfect 
ideal  for  an  Eternal  Life  ? 

But  these  are  questions  of  quality  ;  and  the  mo- 
ment we  pass  from  quantity  to  quality  we  leave 
Science  behind.  In  the  vocabulary  of  Science, 
Eternity  is  only  the  fraction  of  a  word.  It  means 
mere  everlastingness.  To  Religion,  on  the  other 
hand,  Eternity  has  little  to  do  with  time.  To 
correspond  with  the  God  of  Science,  the  Eternal 
Unknowable,  would  be  everlasting  existence ;  to 
correspond  with  "the  true  Gcd  and  Jesus  Christ," 
is  Eternal  Life.     The  quality  of  the  Eternal  Life 


20  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

alone  makes  the  heaven ;  mere  everlastingness 
might  be  no  boon.  Even  the  brief  span  of  tlie 
temporal  life  is  too  long  for  those  who  spend  its 
years  in  sorrow.  Time  itself,  let  alone  Eternity, 
is  all  but  excruciating  to  Doubt.  And  many  be- 
sides Schopenhauer  have  secretly  regarded  con- 
sciousness as  the  hideous  mistake  and  malady  of 
Nature.  Therefore  we  must  not  only  have  quan- 
tity of  years,  to  speak  in  the  language  of  the 
present,  but  quality  of  correspondence.  When 
we  leave  Science  behind,  this  correspondence  also 
receives  a  higher  name.  It  becomes  communion. 
Other  names  there  are  for  it,  religious  and  theolog- 
ical. It  may  be  included  in  a  general  expression, 
Faith ;  or  we  may  call  it  by  a  personal  and  specific 
term,  Love.  For  the  knowing  of  a  Whole  so 
great  involves  the  co-operation  of  many  parts. 

Communion  with  God — can  it  be  demonstrated 
in  terms  of  Science  that  this  is  a  correspondence 
which  will  never  break  ?  We  do  not  appeal  to 
Scienee  for  such  a  testimony.  We  have  asked 
for  its  conception  of  an  Eternal  Life  ;  and  we 
have  received  for  answer  that  Eternal  Life  would 
consist  in  a  correspondence  which  should  never 
cease,  with  an  Environment  which  should  never 
pass  away.  And  yet  what  would  Science  demand 
of  a  perfect  correspondence  that  is  not  met  by 
this,  the  knowing  of  God  ?  There  is  no  other  cor- 
respondence which  could  satisfy  one  at  least  of 
the  conditions.  Not  one  could  be  named  which 
would  not  bear  on  the  face  of  it  the  mark  and 
pledge  of  its  mortality.     But  this,  to  know  God, 


ETERNAL  LIFE,  21 

stands  alone.  To  know  God,  to  be  linked,  with 
God,  to  be  linked  with  Eternity — if  this  is  not  the 
*'  eternal  existence  "  of  biology,  what  can  more 
nearly  approach  it  ?  And  yet  we  are  still  a  great 
way  off — to  establish  a  communication  with  the 
Eternal  is  not  to  secure  Eternal  Life.  It  must  be 
assumed  that  the  communication  could  be  sus- 
tained. And  to  assume  this  would  be  to  beg  the 
question.  So  that  we  have  still  to  prove  Eternal 
Life.  But  let  it  be  again  repeated,  we  are  not 
here  seeking  proofs.  We  are  seeking  light.  We 
are  merely  reconnoitering  from  the  furthest  prom- 
ontory of  Science  if  so  be  that  through  the  haze 
we  may  discern  the  outline  of  a  distant  coast  and 
come  to  some  conclusion  as  to  the  possibility  of 
landing. 

But,  it  may  be  replied,  it  is  not  open  to  any  one 
handling  the  question  of  Immortality  from  the 
side  of  Science  to  remain  neutral  as  to  the  question 
of  fact.  It  is  not  enough  to  announce  that  he  has 
no  addition  to  make  to  the  positive  argument. 
This  may  be  permitted  with  reference  to  other 
points  of  contact  between  Science  and  Religion, 
but  not  with  this.  We  are  told  this  question  is 
settled — that  there  is  no  positive  side.  Science 
meets  the  entire  conception  of  Immortality  with  a 
direct  negative.  In  the  face  of  a  powerful  con- 
sensus against  even  the  possibility  of  a  Future 
Life,  to  content  oneself  with  saying  that  Science 
pretended  to  no  argument  in  favor  of  it  would  be 
at   once   impertinent  and  dishonest.     We  must 


22  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

therefore  devote    ourselves    for  a  moment  to  the 
question  of  possibility 

The  problem  is,  with  a  material  body  and  a 
mental  organization  inseparably  connected  with  it, 
to  bridge  the  grave.  Emotion,  volition,  thought 
itself,  are  functions  of  the  brain.  When  the  brain 
is  impaired,  they  are  impaired.  When  the  brain 
is  not,  they  are  not.  Everything  ceases  with  the 
dissolution  of  the  material  fabric  ;  muscular  activ- 
ity and  mental  activity  perish  alike.  With  the 
pronounced  positive  statements  on  this  point  from 
many  departments  of  modern  Science  we  are  all 
familiar.  The  fatal  verdict  is  recorded  by  a  hun- 
dred hands  and  with  scarcely  a  shadow  of  qualifi- 
cation. "  Unprejudiced  philosophy  is  compelled 
to  reject  the  idea  of  an  individual  immortality  and 
of  a  personal  continuance  after  death.  With  the 
decay  and  dissolution  of  its  material  substratum, 
through  which  alone  it  has  acquired  a  conscious 
existence  and  become  a  person,  and  upon  which  it 
was  dependent,  the  spirit  must  cease  to  exist."  ^ 
To  the  same  effect,  Vogt :  "  Physiology  decides  defi- 
nitely and  categorically  against  individual  im- 
mortality, as  against  any  special  existence  of  the 
Boul.  The  soul  does  not  enter  the  foetus  like  the 
evil  spirit  into  persons  possessed,  but  is  a  product 
of  the  development  of  the  brain,  just  as  muscular 
activity  is  a  product  of  muscular  development, 
and  secretion  a  product  of  glandular  development." 
After  a  careful  review  of  the  position  of  recent 
Science  with  regard  to  the  whole   doctrine,  Mr. 

'  Bijchner:  "  Force  and  Matter,"  3d  ed.,  p.  232. 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  28 

Graham  subis  up  thus  :  "  Such  is  the  argument  of 
Science,  seemingly  decisive  against  a  future  Life. 
As  we  listen  to  her  array  of  syllogisms,  our  hearts 
die  within  us.  The  hopes  of  men,  placed  in  one 
scale  to  be  weighed,  seem  to  fly  up  against  the 
massive  weight  of  her  evidence,  placed  in  the 
other.  It  seems  as  if  all  our  arguments  were  vain 
and  unsubstantial,  as  if  our  future  expectations 
were  the  foolish  dreams  of  children,  as  if  there 
could  not  be  any  other  possible  verdict  arrived  at 
upon  the  evidence  brought  forward."^ 

Can  we  go  on  in  the  teeth  of  so  real  an  obstruc- 
tion ?  Has  not  our  own  weapon  turned  against 
us,  Science  abolishing  with  authoritative  hand  the 
very  truth  we  are  asking  \%  to  define? 

What  the  philosopher  has  to  throw  into  the 
other  scale  can  be  easily  indicated.  Generally 
speaking,  he  demurs  to  the  dogmatism  of  the  con- 
clusion. That  mind  and  brain  react,  that  the 
mental  and  the  physiological  processes  are  related, 
and  very  intimately  related,  is  beyond  controversy. 
But  how  they  are  related,  he  submits,  is  still 
altogether  unknown.  The  correlation  of  mind 
and  brain  do  not  involve  their  identity.  And  not 
a  few  authorities  accordingly  have  consistently 
hesitated  to  draw  any  conclusion  at  all.  Even 
Buchner's  statement  turns  out,  on  close  examina- 
tion, to  be  tentative  in  the  extreme.  In  prefacing 
his  chapter  on  Personal  Continuance,  after  a  single 
sentence  on  the  dependence  of  the  soul  and  its 
manifestations  upon  a  material  substratum,  he  re- 

>  "  The  Creed  of  Science,"  p.  169. 


24  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

marks,  "  Though  we  are  unable  to  form  a  definite 
idea  as  to  the  lioio  of  this  connection,  we  are  still 
by  these  facts  justified  in  asserting,  that  the  mode 
of  this  connection  renders  it  «jt?j!?flrew^/?/ impossible 
that  they  should  continue  to  exist  separately."^ 
There  is,  therefore,  a  flaw  at  this  point  in  the 
argument  for  materialism.  It  may  not  help  the 
spiritualist  in  the  least  degree  positiveh^  He  may 
be  as  far  as  ever  from  a  theory  of  how  conscious- 
ness could  continue  without  the  material  tissue. 
But  his  contention  secures  for  him  the  right  of 
speculation.  The  path  beyond  may  lie  in  hopeless 
gloom  ;  but  it  is  not  barred.  He  may  bring  for- 
ward his  theory  if  he  will.  And  this  is  something. 
For  a  permission  to  go  on  is  often  the  most  that 
Science  can  grant  to  Religion. 

Men  have  taken  advantage  of  this  loophole  in 
various  ways.  And  though  it  cannot  be  said  that 
these  speculations  offer  us  more  than  a  probabil- 
ity, this  is  still  enough  to  combine  with  the  deep- 
seated  expectation  in  the  bosom  of  mankind  and 
give  fresh  lustre  to  the  hope  of  a  future  life. 
Whether  we  find  relief  in  the  theory  of  a  simple 
dualism ;  whether  with  Ulrici  we  further  define 
the  soul  as  an  invisible  enswathement  of  the  body, 
material  j^et  non-atomic  ;  whether,  with  the  "  Un- 
seen Universe,"  we  are  helped  by  the  spectacle  of 
known  forms  of  matter  shading  off  into  an  ever- 
growing subtilty,  mobility,  and  immateriality  ;  or 
whether,  with  Wundt,  we  regard  the  soul  as  "  the 
ordered  unity  of  many  elements,"  it  is  certain 
1  "Force  and  Matter,"  p.  231. 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  25 

that  shapes  can  be  given  to  the  conception  of  a 
correspondence  which  shall  bridge  the  grave  such 
as  to  satisfy  minds  too  much  accustomed  to  weigh 
evidence  to  put  themselves  off  with  fancies. 

But  whether  the  possibilities  of  physiology  or 
the  theories  of  philosophy  do  or  do  not  substan- 
tially assist  us  in  realizing  Immortality,  is  to 
Religion,  to  Religion  at  least  regarded  from  the 
present  point  of  view,  of  inferior  moment.  The 
fact  of  Immortality  rests  for  us  on  a  different 
basis.  Probably,  indeed,  after  all  the  Christian 
philosopher  never  engaged  himself  in  a  more 
superfluous  task  than  in  seeking  along  physiolog- 
ical lines  to  find  room  for  a  soul.  The  theory  of 
Christianity  has  only  to  be  fairly  stated  to  make 
manifest  its  thorough  independence  of  all  the 
usual  speculations  on  immortality.  The  theory  is 
not  that  thought,  volition,  or  emotion,  as  such 
are  to  survive  the  grave.  The  difficulty  of  hold- 
ing a  doctrine  is  this  form,  in  spite  of  what  has 
been  advanced  to  the  contrary,  in  spite  of  the 
hopes  and  wishes  of  mankind,  in  spite  of  all  the 
scientific  and  philosophical  attempts  to  make  it 
tenable,  is  still  profound.  No  secular  theory  of 
personal  continuance,  as  even  Butler  acknowl- 
edged, does  not  equally  demand  the  eternity  of  the 
brute.  No  secular  theory  defines  the  point  in  the 
chain  of  Evolution  at  which  organisms  become 
endowed  with  Immortality.  No  secular  theory 
explains  the  condition  of  the  endowment,  nor  in- 
dicates its  goal.  And  if  we  have  nothing  more 
to  fan  hope  than  the  unexplored  mysterv  of  the 


26  ETERNAL  LIFE, 

whole  region,  or  the  unknown  remainders  among 
the  potencies  of  Life,  then,  as  those  who  have 
"  hope  only  in  this  world,"  we  are  "  of  all  men  the 
most  miserable." 

When  we  turn,  on  the  other  hand,  to  the  doc- 
trine as  it  came  from  the  lips  of  Christ,  we  find 
ourselves  in  an  entirely  different  region.  He 
makes  no  attempt  to  project  the  material  into  the 
immaterial.  The  old  elements,  however  refined 
and  subtle  as  to  their  matter,  are  not  in  themselves 
to  inherit  the  Kingdom  of  God.  That  which  is 
flesh  is  flesh.  Instead  of  attaching  Immortality 
to  the  natural  organism.  He  introduces  a  new  and 
original  factor  which  none  of  the  secular,  and  few 
even  of  the  theological  theories,  seem  to  take 
sufficiently  into  account.  To  Cliristanity,  "  he 
that  hath  the  Son  of  God  hath  Life,  and  he  that 
hath  not  the  Son  hath  not  Life."  This,  as  we 
take  it,  defines  the  correspondence  which  is  to 
bridge  the  grave.  This  is  the  clue  to  the  nature 
of  the  Life  that  lies  at  the  back  of  the  spiritual 
organism.  And  this  is  the  true  solution  of  the 
mystery  of  Eternal  Life. 

There  lies  a  something  at  the  back  of  the  cor- 
respondences of  the  spiritual  organism — just  as 
there  lies  a  something  at  the  back  of  the  natural 
correspondence.  To  say  that  Life  is  a  correspond- 
ence is  only  to  express  the  partial  truth.  There 
is  something  behind.  Life  manifests  itself  in  cor- 
respondences. But  what  determines  them  ?  The 
organism  exhibits  a  variety  of  correspondences. 
What  organizes  them  ?     As  in  the  natural,  so  in 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  27 

the  spiritual,  there  is  a  Principle  of  Life.  We 
cannot  get  rid  of  tliat  term.  However  clumsy, 
however  provisional,  however  much  a  mere  cloak 
for  ignorance,  Science  as  yet  is  unable  to  dispense 
with  the  idea  of  a  Principle  of  Life.  We  must 
work  with  the  word  till  we  get  a  better.  Now  that 
which  determines  the  correspondence  of  the 
spiritual  organism  is  a  Principle  of  Spiritual  Life. 
It  is  a  new  and  Divine  Possession.  He  that  hath 
the  Son  hath  Life ;  conversely,  he  that  hath  Life 
hath  the  Son.  And  this  indicates  at  once  the 
quality  and  the  quantity  of  the  correspondence 
which  is  to  bridge  the  grave.  He  that  hath  Life 
hath  the  Son.  He  possesses  the  Spirit  of  the  Son. 
That  Spirit  is,  so  to  speak,  organized  within  him 
by  the  Son.  It  is  the  manifestation  of  the  new 
nature — of  which  more  anon.  The  fact  to  note 
at  present  is  that  this  is  not  an  organic  correspond- 
ence, but  a  spiritual  correspondence.  It  comes 
not  from  generation,  but  from  regeneration.  The 
relation  between  tlie  spiritual  man  and  his  En- 
vironment is,  in  theological  language,  a  filial  re- 
lation. With  the  new  Spirit,  the  filial  correspond- 
ence, he  knows  the  Father  and  this  is  Life 
Eternal.  This  is  not  only  the  real  relation,  but 
the  only  possible  relation :  "  Neither  knoweth  any 
man  the  Father  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomso- 
ever the  Son  will  reveal  Him."  And  this  on  purely 
natural  grounds.  It  takes  the  Divine  to  know  the 
Divine — but  in  no  more  mysterious  sense  than  it 
takes  the  human  to  understand  the  human.  The 
analogy,  indeed,  for  the  whole  field  here  has  been 


28  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

finely  expressed  already  by  Paul :  "  What  man," 
he  asks,  "  knoweth  the  things  of  a  man,  save  the 
spirit  of  man  which  is  in  him  ?  even  so  the  things 
of  God  knoweth  no  man,  but  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Now  we  have  received,  not  the  spirit  of  the  world, 
but  the  Spirit  which  is  of  God  ;  that  we  might  know 
the  things  that  are  freely  given  to  us  of  God."  ^ 

It  were  idle,  such  being  the  quality  of  the  new 
relation,  to  add  that  this  also  contains  the  guaran- 
tee of  its  eternity.  Here  at  last  is  a  correspond- 
ence which  will  never  cease.  Its  powers  in 
bridging  the  grave  have  been  tried.  The  corre- 
spondence of  the  spiritual  man  possesses  the  super- 
natural virtues  of  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life. 
It  is  known  by  former  experiment  to  have  survived 
the  "changes  in  the  j^hysical  state  of  the  en- 
vironment," and  those  "mechanical  actions  "  and 
*'  variations  of  available  food,"  which  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer  tells  us  are  "liable  to  stop  the  processes 
going  on  in  the  organism."  In  short,  this  is  a  cor- 
respondence which  at  once  satisfies  the  demands 
of  Science  and  Religion.  In  mere  quantity  it  is 
different  from  every  other  correspondence  known. 
Setting  aside  everything  else  in  Religion,  every- 
thing adventitious,  local,  and  provisional ;  dissect- 
ing into  the  bone  and  marrow  we  find  this — a  cor- 
respondence which  can  never  break  with  an  En- 
vironment which  can  never  change.  Here  is  a 
relation  established  with  Eternity.  The  passing 
years  lay  no  limiting  hand  on  it.  Corruption  in- 
jures it  not.     It  survives  Death.    It,  and  it  only, 

»  1  Cor.  ii.  11, 12. 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  29 

will  stretch  beyond  the  grave   and  be  found  in- 
violate— 

"When  the  moon  is  old, 
And  the  stars  are  cold, 
And  the  books  of  the  Judgment-day  unfold.'* 

The  misgiving  which  will  creep  sometimes  over 
the  brightest  faith  has  already  received  its  expres- 
sion and  its  rebuke  :  "  Who  shall  separate  us  from 
the  love  of  Christ?  Shall  tribulation,  or  distress, 
or  persecution,  or  famine,  or  nakedness,  or  peril, 
or  sword  ?  "  Shall  these  "  changes  in  the  physical 
state  of  the  environment "  which  threaten  death 
to  the  natural  man  destroy  the  spiritual?  Shall 
death,  or  life,  or  angels,  or  principalities,  or  powers, 
arrest  or  tamper  with  his  eternal  correspondences  ? 
"  Nay,  in  all  these  things  we  are  more  than  con- 
querors through  Him  that  loved  us.  For  I  am 
persuaded  that  neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels, 
nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  present, 
nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any 
other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the 
love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  *. 

It  may  seem  an  objection  to  some  that  the  "per- 
fect correspondence  "  should  come  to  man  in  so 
extraordinary  a  way.  The  earlier  stages  in  the 
doctrine  are  promising  enough  ;  they  are  entirely 
in  line  with  Nature.  And  if  Nature  had  also 
furnished  the  "perfect  correspondence  "  demanded 
for  an  Eternal  Life  the  position  might  be  unassail- 
able. But  this  sudden  reference  to  a  something 
'  Kom.  viii.  35-39. 


30  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

outside  the  natural  Environment  destroys  the 
continuity,  and  discovers  a  permanent  weakness 
in  the  whole  theory? 

To  which  there  is  a  twofold  reply.  In  the  first 
place,  to  go  outside  what  we  call  Nature  is  not  to 
go  outside  Environment.  Nature,  the  natural 
Environment,  is  only  a  part  of  Environment. 
There  is  another  large  part  which,  though  some 
profess  to  have  no  correspondence  with  it,  is  not 
on  that  account  unreal,  or  even  unnatural.  The 
mental  and  moral  world  is  unknown  to  the  plant. 
But  it  is  real.  It  cannot  be  affirmed  either  that 
it  is  unnatural  to  the  plant ;  although  it  might  be 
said  that  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Vegetable 
Kingdom  it  was  Hwpernatural.  Things  are  natural 
or  supernatural  simply  according  to  where  one 
stands.  Man  is  supernatural  to  the  mineral ;  God 
is  supernatural  to  the  man.  When  a  mineral  is 
seized  upon  by  the  living  plant  and  elevated  to 
the  organic  kingdom,  no  tresspass  against  Nature 
is  committed.  It  merely  enters  a  larger  Environ- 
ment, which  before  was  supernatural  to  it,  but 
which  now  is  entirely  natural.  When  the  heart 
of  a  man,  again,  is  seized  upon  by  the  quickening 
Spirit  of  God,  no  further  violence  is  done  to 
natural  law.  It  is  another  case  of  the  inorganic, 
so  to  speak,  passing  into  the  organic.  ~ 

But,  in  the  second  place,  it  is  complained  as  if 
it  were  an  enormity  in  itself  that  the  spiritual 
correspondence  should  be  furnished  from  the 
spiritual  world.  And  to  this  the  answer  lies  in 
the  same  direction.     Correspondence  in  any  case 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  31 

is  the  gift  of  Environment.     The  natural  Environ- 
ment gives  men  their  natural  faculties;  the  spirit- 
ual affords    them   their  spiritual   faculties.     It  is 
natural  for   the    spiritual   Environment  to  supply 
the  spiritual  faculties  ;  it  would  be  quite  unnatu- 
ral for  the    natural   Environment  to  do  it.     The 
natural  law   of  Biogenesis  forbids  it ;  the  moral 
fact  that  the  finite  cannot  comprehend  the  Infinite 
is  against  it ;  the  spiritual  principle  that  flesh  and 
blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God  renders 
it  absurd.     Not,  however,  that  the  spiritual  facul- 
ties are,  as  it  were,  manufactured  in  the  spiritual 
world  and  supplied    ready-made  to  the  spiritual 
organism — forced   upon   it  as  an  external  equip- 
ment.    This  certainly  is  not  involved  in  saying 
that  the  spiritual   faculties  are  furnished  by  the 
spiritual  world.     Organisms  are,  not  added  to  by 
accretion,    as   in    the    case   of    minerals,  but    by 
growth.     And  the  spiritual  faculties  are  organized 
in   the  spiritual  protoplasm  of  the  soul,  just  as 
other  faculties  are  organized  in  the  protoplasm  of 
the  body.     The  plant  is  made  of  materials  which 
have  once  been  inorganic.     An  organizing  prin- 
ciple not  belonging  to  their  kingdom  lays  hold  of 
them  and  elaborates  them  until  they  have  corre- 
spondences with  the  kingdom  to  which  the  organ- 
izing principle   belonged.     Their   original  organ- 
izing priu'jiple,  if   it  can  be  called  by  this  name, 
was  Crystallization  ;  so  that  we  have  now  a  dis- 
tinctly foreign  power  organizing  in  totally  new  and 
higher  directions.     In  the  spiritual  world,  simi- 
larly,    we   find   an   organizing  principle  at  woric 


32  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

among  the  materials  of  the  organic  kingdom,  per- 
forming a  further  miracle,  but  not  a  different  kind 
of  miracle,  producing  organizations  of  a  novel 
kind,  but  not  by  a  novel  method.  The  second 
process,  in  fact,  is  simply  what  an  enlightened 
evolutionist  would  have  expected  from  the  first. 
It  marks  the  natural  and  legitimate  progress  of 
the  development.  And  this  in  the  line  of  the  true 
Evolution — not  the  linear  Evolution,  which  would 
look  for  the  development  of  the  natural  man 
through  powers  already  inherent,  as  if  one  were 
to  look  to  Crystallization  to  accomplish  the  devel- 
opment of  the  mineral  into  the  plant, — but  that 
larger  form  of  Evolution  which  includes  among 
its  factors  the  double  Law  of  Biogenesis  and  the 
immense  further  truth  that  this  involves. 

What  is  further  included  in  this  complex  corre- 
spondence we  shall  have  opportunity  to  illustrate 
afterwards.^  Meantime  let  it  be  noted  on  what 
the  Christian  argument  for  Immortality  really  rests. 
It  stands  upon  the  pedestal  on  which  the  theolo- 
gian rests  the  whole  of  historical  Christianity — 
the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  ought  to  be  placed  in  the  forefront  of  all 
Christian  teaching  that  Christ's  mission  on  earth 
was  to  give  men  Life.  '•  I  am  come,"  He  said, 
"that  ye  might  have  Life,  and  that  ye  might  have 
it  more  abundantly."  And  that  He  meant  literal 
Life,  literal  spiritual  and  Eternal  Life,  is  clear 
from  the  whole  course  of  His  teaching  and  acting. 
To  impose  a  metaphorical  meaning  on  the  com- 

»  Fide  "Conformity  to  Type,"  page  287. 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  33 

monest  word  of  the  New  Testament  is  to  violate 
every  canon  of  interpretation,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  charge  the  greatest  of  teachers  with  per- 
sistently mystifying  His  hearers  by  an  unusual  use 
of  so  exact  a  vehicle  for  expressing  definite 
thought  as  the  Greek  language,  and  that  on  the 
most  momentous  subject  of  which  He  ever  spoke 
to  men.  It  is  a  canon  of  interpretation,  accord- 
ing to  Alford,  that  "  a  figurative  sense  of  words  is 
never  admissible  except  when  required  by  the 
context."  The  context,  in  most  cases,  is  not  only 
directly  unfavorable  to  a  figurative  meaning,  but 
in  innumerable  instances  in  Christ's  teaching  Life 
is  broadly  contrasted  with  Death.  In  the  teaching 
of  the  apostles,  again,  we  find  that,  without  ex- 
ception, they  accepted  the  term  in  its  simple  literal 
sense.  Reuss  defines  the  apostolic  belief  with  his 
usual  impartiality  when — and  the  quotation  is 
doubly  pertinent  here — he  discovers  in  the  apos- 
tle's conception  of  Life,  first,  "  the  idea  of  a  real 
existence,  an  existence  such  as  is  proper  to  God  and 
to  the  Word  ;  an  imperishable  existence — that  is  to 
say,  not  subject  to  the  vicissitudes  and  imperfec- 
tions of  the  finite  world.  This  primary  idea  is 
repeatedly  expressed,  at  least  in  a  negative  form  ; 
it  leads  to  a  doctrine  of  immortality,  or,  to  speak 
more  correctly,  of  life,  far  surpassing  any  that  had 
been  expressed  in  the  formulas  of  the  current 
philosophy  or  theology,  and  resting  upon  premises 
and  conceptions  altogether  different.  In  fact,  it 
can  dispense  both  with  the  philosophical  thesis 
of  the  immateriality  or  indestructibility  of    the 


3i  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

human  soul,  and  with  the  theologicial  thesis  of  a 
miraculous  corporeal  reconstruction  of  our  person  ; 
theses,  the  first  of  which  is  altogether  foreign  to 
the  religion  of  tlie  Bible,  and  the  second  abso- 
lutely opposed  to  reason."  Second,  "  the  idea  of 
life,  as  it  is  conceived  in  this  system,  implies  the 
idea  of  a  power,  an  operation,  a  communication, 
since  this  life  no  longer  remains,  so  to  speak,  latent 
or  passive  in  God  and  in  the  Word,  but  through 
thera  reaches  the  believer.  It  is  not  a  mental 
somnolent  thing  ;  it  is  not  a  plant  without  fruit ; 
it  is  a  germ  which  is  to  find  fullest  development."  ^ 

If  we  are  asked  to  define  more  clearly  what  is 
meant  by  this  mysterious  endowment  of  Life,  wo 
again  hand  over  the  difficulty  to  Science.  When 
Science  can  define  the  Katural  Life  and  the  Physi- 
cal Force  we  may  hope  for  further  clearness  on 
the  nature  and  action  of  the  Spiritual  Powers. 
The  effort  to  detect  the  living  Spirit  must  be  at 
least  as  idle  as  the  attempt  to  subject  protoplasm 
to  microscopic  examination  in  the  hope  of  dis- 
covering Life.  We  are  warned,  also,  not  to  expect 
too  much.  "  Thou  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh 
or  whither  it  goeth."  This  being  its  quality, 
when  the  Spiritual  Life  is  discovered  in  the 
laboratory  it  will  possibly  be  time  to  give  it  up 
altogether.  It  may  say,  as  Socrates  of  his  soul, 
"  You  may  bury  me — if  you  can  catch  me." 

Science  never  corroborates  a  spiritual  truth 
without  illuminating  it.     The  threshold  of  Eter- 

'  "  History  of  Christian  Theology  in  the  Apostolic 
Age,"  vol.  ii.  p.  496. 


/ 

ETERNAL  LIFE.  35 

nity  is  a  place  where  many  shadows  meet.  And 
the  light  of  Science  here,  wliere  everything  is  so 
dark,  is  welcome  a  thousand  times.  Many  men 
would  be  religious  if  they  knew  where  to  begin ; 
many  would  be  more  religious  if  they  were  sure 
where  it  would  end.  It  is  not  indifference  that 
keeps  some  men  from  God,  but  ignorance.  ''  Good 
Master,  what  must  I  do  to  inherit  Eternal  Life  ?  " 
is  still  the  deepest  question  of  the  age.  What  is 
Religion?  What  am  I  to  believe?  What  seek 
with  all  my  heart  and  soul  and  mind  ? — this  is  the 
imperious  question  sent  up  to  consciousness  from 
the  depths  of  being  in  all  earnest  hours;  sent  down 
again,  alas,  with  many  of  us,  time  after  time, 
unanswered.  Into  all  our  thought  and  work  and 
reading  this  question  pursues  us.  But  the  theories 
are  rejected  one  by  one  ;  the  great  books  are  re- 
turned sadly  to  their  shelves,  the  years  pass,  and 
the  problem  remains  unsolved.  The  confusion  of 
tongues  here  is  terrible.  Every  day  a  new 
authority  announces  himself.  Poets,  philosophers, 
preachers,  try  their  hand  on  us  in  turn.  New 
prophets  arise,  and  beseech  us  for  our  soul's  sake 
to  give  ear  to  them — at  last  in  an  hour  of  inspira- 
tion they  have  discovered  the  final  truth.  Yet 
the  doctrine  of  yesterday  is  challenged  by  a  fresh 
philosophy  to-day ;  and  the  creed  of  to-day  will 
fall  in  turn  before  the  criticism  of  to-morrow. 
Increase  of  knowledge  increaseth  sorrow.  And 
at  length  the  conflicting  truths,  like  the  beams  of 
light  in  the  laboratory  experiment,  combine  in  the 
mind  to  make  total  darkness. 


36  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

But  here  are  two  outstanding  authorities  agreed 
— not  men,  not  philosophers,  not  creeds.  Here  is 
the  voice  of  God  and  the  voice  of  Nature.  I  can- 
not be  wrong  if  I  listen  to  them.  Sometimes 
when  uncertain  of  a  voice  from  its  very  loudness, 
we  catch  the  missing  syllable  in  the  echo.  In 
God  and  Nature  we  have  Voice  and  Echo.  When 
I  hear  both,  I  am  assured.  My  sense  of  hearing 
does  not  betray  me  twice.  I  recognize  the  Voice 
in  the  Echo,  the  Echo  makes  me  certain  of  the 
Voice ;  I  listen  and  I  know.  The  question  of  a 
Future  Life  is  a  biological  question.  Nature  may 
be  silent  on  other  problems  of  Religion  ;  but  here 
she  has  a  right  to  speak.  The  whole  confusion 
around  the  doctrine  of  Eternal  Life  has  arisen 
from  making  it  a  question  of  Philosophy.  We 
shall  do  ill  to  refuse  a  hearing  to  any  speculation 
of  Philosophy;  the  ethical  relations  here  espe- 
cially are  intimate  and  real.  But  in  the  first  in- 
stance Eternal  Life,  as  a  question  of  Hfe^  is  a 
problem  for  Biology.  The  soul  is  a  living  organ- 
ism. And  for  any  question  as  to  the  soul's  Life 
we  must  appeal  to  Life-science.  And  what  does 
the  Life-science  teach  ?  That  if  I  am  to  inherit 
Eternal  Life,  I  must  cultivate  a  correspondence 
with  the  Eternal.  This  is  a  simple  proposition, 
for  Nature  is  always  simple.  I  take  this  proposi- 
tion, and,  leaving  Nature,  proceed  to  fill  it  in.  I 
search  everywhere  for  a  clue  to  the  Eternal.  I 
ransack  literature  for  a  definition  of  a  correspond- 
ence between  man  and  God.  Obviously  that  can 
only  come  from  one  source.     And  the  analogies 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  37 

of  Science  permit  us  to  apply  to  it.  All  knowl- 
edge lies  in  Environment.  When  I  want  to  know 
about  minerals  1  go  to  minerals.  When  I  want 
to  know  about  flowers  I  go  to  flowers.  And  they 
tell  me.  In  their  own  way  they  speak  to  me,  each 
in  its  own  way,  and  each  for  itself — not  the 
mineral  for  the  flower,  Avhich  is  impossible,  nor  the 
flower  for  the  mineral,  which  is  also  impossible. 
So  if  I  want  to  know  about  Man,  I  go  to  his  part 
of  the  Environment.  And  he  tells  me  about  him- 
self, not  as  the  plant  or  the  mineral,  for  he  is 
neither,  but  in  his  own  way.  And  if  I  want  to 
know  about  God,  I  go  to  His  part  of  the  Environ- 
ment. And  he  tells  me  about  Himself,  not  as  a 
Man,  for  He  is  not  Man,  but  in  His  own  way. 
And  just  as  naturally  as  the  flower  and  the  mineral 
and  the  Man,  each  in  their  own  way,  tell  me  about 
themselves.  He  tells  me  about  Plimself.  He  very 
strangely  condescends  indeed  in  making  things 
plain  to  me,  actually  assuming  for  a  time  the  Form 
of  a  Man  that  I  at  my  poor  level  may  better  see 
Him.  This  is  my  opportunity  to  know  Him. 
This  incarnation  is  God  making  Himself  acces- 
sible to  human  thought — God  opening  to  man  the 
possibility  of  correspondence  through  Jesus 
Christ.  And  this  correspondence  and  this  Environ- 
ment  are  those  I  seek.  He  Himself  assures  me, 
"  This  is  Life  Eternal,  that  they  might  know  Thee, 
the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou 
has  sent."  Do  I  not  now  discern  the  deeper 
meaning  in  "  JesuB  Christ  whom  Thou  has  sent  f  '* 
Do  J  not  better  understand  with  what  vision  and 


38  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

rapture  the  profoundest  of  the  disciples  exclaims, 
"  The  Son  of  God  is  come,  and  hath  given  us  an 
understanding  that  we  might  know  Him  that  is 
True?"^ 

Having  opened  correspondence  with  the  Eternal 
Environment,  the  subsequent  stages  are  in  the  line 
of  all  other  normal  development.  We  have  but 
to  continue,  to  deepen,  to  extend,  and  to  enrich 
the  correspondence  that  has  been  begun.  And  we 
shall  soon  find  to  our  surprise  that  this  is  accom- 
panied by  another  and  parallel  process.  The  action 
is  not  all  upon  our  side.  The  Environment  also 
will  be  found  to  correspond.  The  influence  of 
Environment  is  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  sub- 
stantial of  modern  biological  doctrines.  Of  the 
power  of  Environment  to  form  or  transform  or- 
ganisms, of  its  ability  to  develop  or  suppress 
function,  of  its  potency  in  determining  growth, 
and  generally  of  its  immense  influence  in  Evolu- 
tion, there  is  no  need  now  to  speak.  But  Envi- 
ronment is  now  acknowledged  to  be  one  of  the 
most  potent  factors  in  the  Evolution  of  Life. 
The  influence  of  Environment,  too,  seems  to  in- 
crease rather  than  diminish  as  we  approach  the 
higher  forms  of  being.  The  highest  forms  are 
the  most  mobile  ;  their  capacity  of  change  is  the 
greatest ;  they  are,  in  short,  most  easily  acted  on 
b}^  Environment.  And  not  only  are  the  highest 
organisms  the  most  mobile,  but  the  highest  parts 
of  the  highest  organisms  are  more  mobile  than  the 
lower.     Environment  can  do  little,  comparatively, 

'  1  John  V.  20. 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  39 

in  the  direction  of  inducing  variation  in  the  body 
of  a  child;  but  how  plastic  is  its  mind  !  How  in- 
finitely sensitive  is  its  soul !  How  infallibly  can 
it  be  tuned  to  music  or  to  dissonance  by  themoral 
harmony  or  discord  of  its  outward  lot!  How 
decisively  indeed  are  we  not  all  formed  and 
moulded,  made  or  unmade,  by  external  circum- 
stance !     Might  we  not  all  confess  with  Ulysses, — 

"  I  am  a  part  of  all  that  I  have  met  ?  " 

Much  more,  then,  shall  we  look  for  the  influence 
of  Environment  on  the  spiritual  nature  of  him 
who  has  opened  correspondence  with  God. 
Reaching  out  his  eager  and  quickened  faculties  to 
the  spiritual  world  around  him,  shall  he  not  be- 
come spiritual  ?  In  vital  contact  with  Holiness, 
shall  he  not  become  holy?  Breathing  now  an 
atmosphere  of  ineffable  Purity,  shall  he  miss 
becoming  pure  ?  Walking  with  God  from  day  to 
day,  shall  he  fail  to  be  taught  of  God? 

Growth  in  grace  is  sometimes  described  as  a 
strange,  mystical,  and  unintelligible  process.  It 
is  mystical,  but  neither  strange  nor  unintelligible. 
It  proceeds  according  to  Natural  Law,  and  the  lead- 
ing factor  in  sanctification  is  Influence  of  Environ- 
ment. The  possibility  of  it  depends  upon  the 
mobility  of  the  organism ;  the  result,  on  the 
extent  and  frequency  of  certain  correspondences. 
These  facts  insensibly  lead  on  to  further  sug- 
gestion. Is  it  not  possible  that  these  biological 
truths  may  carry  with  them  the  clue  to  a  still 
profounder  philosophy — even  that  of  Regenera- 
tion ? 


40  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

Evolutionists  tell  us  that  by  the  influence  of  en- 
vironment  certain  aquatic  animals  have  become 
adapted  to  a  terrestrial  mode  of  life.  Breathing 
normally  by  gills,  as  the  result  and  reward  of  a 
continued  effort  carried  on  from  generation  to 
generation  to  inspire  the  air  of  heaven  direct,  they 
have  slowly  acquired  the  lung-fimction.  In  the 
yoHng  organism,  true  to  tlie  ancestral  type,  the 
gill  still  persists — as  in  the  tadpole  of  the  com- 
mon frog.  But  as  maturity  approaches  the  true 
lung  appears ;  the  gill  gradually  transfers  its  task 
to  the  higher  orgaii.  It  then  becomes  atrophied 
and  disappears,  and  finally  respiration  in  the  adult 
is  conducted  by  lungs  alone.^  We  may  be  far,  in 
the  meantime,  from  saying  that  this  is  proved. 
It  is  for  tliose  who  accept  it  to  deny  the  justice  of 
the  spiritual  analogy.  Is  religion  to  them  unsci- 
entific in  its  doctrine  of  Regeneration  ?  Will  the 
evolutionist  who  admits  the  regeneration  of  the 
frog  under  the  modifying  influence  of  a  continued 
correspondence  with  a  new  environment,  care  to 
question  the  possibility  of  the  soul  acquiring  such 
a  faculty  as  that  of  Prayer,  the  marvellous  breath- 
ing-function of  the  new  creature,  when  in  contact 
with  the  atmosphere  of  a  besetting  God  ?  Is  the 
change  from  the  earthly  to  tlie  heavenly  more 
mysterious  than  the  change  from  the  aquatic  to 
the  terrestrial  mode  of  life  ?     Is  Evolution  to  stop 

'  Vide  also  the  remarkable  experiments  of  Fraulein  v. 
Chauvin  on  the  Transformation  of  the  Mexican  Axolotl 
into  Ainblystoma. — Weismann's  "Studies  in  the  The- 
ory of  Descent,"  vol.  ii.  pt.  iii. 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  41 

with  the  organic?  If  it  be  objected  that  it  has 
taken  ages  to  perfect  the  function  in  the  batrach' 
ian,  the  reply  is,  that  it  will  take  ages  to  perfect 
the  function  in  the  Christian.  For  every  thou- 
sand years  the  natural  evolution  will  allow  for  the 
development  of  its  organism,  the  Higher  Biology 
will  grant  its  product  millions.  We  have  indeed 
spoken  of  the  spiritual  correspondence  as  already 
perfect — but  it  is  perfect  only  as  the  bud  is  per- 
fect. "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  it  shall  be,'* 
any  more  than  it  appeared  a  million  years  ago 
what  the  evolving  batrachian  would  be. 

But  to  return.  We  have  been  dealing  with  the 
scientific  aspects  of  communion  with  God.  Insen- 
sibly, from  quantity  we  have  been  led  to  speak 
of  quality.  And  enough  has  now  been  advanced 
to  indicate  generally  the  nature  of  that  corre- 
spondence with  which  is  necessarily  associated 
Eternal  Life.  There  remain  but  one  or  two  de- 
tails to  which  we  must  lastly,  and  very  briefly, 
address  ourselves. 

The  quality  of  everlastingness  belongs,  as  we 
have  seen,  to  a  single  correspondence,  or  rather  to 
a  single  set  of  correspondences.  But  it  is  appa- 
rent that  before  this  correspondence  can  take  full 
and  final  effect  a  further  process  is  necessary. 
By  some  means  it  must  be  separated  from  all  the 
other  correspondences  of  the  organism  which  do 
not  share  its  peculiar  quality.  In  this  life  it  is 
restrained  by  these  other  correspondences.  They 
may  contribute  to  it,  or  hinder  it;  but  they  ai-e 
essentially  of  a  different  order.     They  belong  not 


42  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

to  Eternity  but  to  Time,  and  to  this  present 
world;  and,  unless  some  provision  is  made  for 
dealing  with  them,  they  will  detain  the  aspiiing 
organism  in  this  present  world  till  Time  is  ended. 
Of  course,  in  a  sense,  all  that  belongs  to  Time  be- 
longs also  to  Eternity ;  but  these  lower  corre- 
spondences are  in  their  nature  unfitted  for  an 
Eternal  Life.  Even  if  they  were  perfect  in  their 
relation  to  their  Environment,  they  would  still 
not  be  Eternal.  However  opposed,  apparently,  to 
the  scientific  definition  of  Eternal  Life,  it  is  yet 
true  that  perfect  correspondence  with  Environ- 
ment is  not  Eternal  Life.  A  very  important  word 
in  the  complete  definition  is,  in  this  sentence, 
omitted.  On  that  word  it  has  not  been  necessary 
hitherto,  and  for  obvious  reasons,  to  place  any 
emphasis,  but  when  we  come  to  deal  with  false 
pretenders  to  Immortality  we  must  return  to  it. 
Were  the  definition  complete  as  it  stands,  it  might, 
with  the  permission  of  the  psycho-physiologist, 
guarantee  the  Immortality  of  every  living  thing. 
In  the  dog,  for  instance,  the  material  framework 
giving  way  at  death  might  leave  the  released 
canine  spirit  still  free  to  inhabit  the  old  Environ- 
ment. And  so  with  every  creature  which  had 
ever  established  a  conscious  relation  with  sur- 
rounding things.  Now  the  difficulty  in  framing  a 
theory  of  Eternal  Life  has  been  to  construct  one 
which  will  exclude  the  brute  creation,  drawing 
the  line  rigidly  at  man,  or  at  least  somewhere 
within  the  human  race.  Not  that  we  need  object 
to  the  Immortality  of  the  dog,  or  of  the  whole  in- 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  43 

ferior  creation.  Nor  that  we  need  refuse  a  place 
to  any  intelligible  speculation  which  would  people 
the  earth  to-day  with  the  invisible  forms  of  all 
things  that  have  ever  lived.  Only  we  still  insist 
that  this  is  not  Eternal  Life.  And  why?  Be- 
cause their  Environment  is  not  Eternal.  Tlieir 
correspondence,  however  firmly  established,  is 
established  with  that  which  shall  pass  away. 
An  Eternal  Life  demands  an  Eternal  Environ- 
ment. 

The  demand  for  a  perfect  Environment  as  well 
as  for  a  perfect  correspondence  is  less  clear  in  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer's  definition  than  it  might  be. 
But  it  is  an  essential  factor.  An  organism  might 
remain  true  to  its  Environment,  but  what  if  the 
Environment  played  it  false?  If  the  organism 
possessed  the  power  to  change,  it  could  adapt  it- 
self to  successive  changes  in  the  Environment. 
And  if  this  were  guaranteed  we  should  also  have 
the  conditions  for  Eternal  Life  fulfilled.  But 
what  if  the  Environment  passed  away  altogether  ? 
What  if  the  earth  swept  suddenly  into  the  sun? 
This  is  a  change  of  Environment  against  which 
there  could  be  no  precaution  and  for  which  there 
could  be  as  little  provision.  With  a  changing 
Environment  even,  there  must  always  remain  the 
dread  and  possibility  of  a  falling  out  of  corre- 
spondence. At  the  best.  Life  would  be  uncertain. 
But  with  a  changeless  Environment — such  as  that 
possessed  by  the  spiritual  organism — the  per- 
petuity of  the  correspondence,  so  far  as  the  ex- 
ternal relation  is  concerned,  is  guaranteed.     This 


44  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

quality  of  permanence  in  the  Environment  dis- 
tinguishes the  religious  relation  from  every  other. 
Why  should  not  the  musician's  life  be  an  Eternal 
Life?  Because,  lor  one  thing,  the  musical  world, 
the  Environment  with  which  he  corresponds,  is 
not  eternal.  Even  if  his  correspondence  in  itself 
could  last  eternally,  the  environing  material  things 
with  which  he  corresponds  must  pass  away.  His 
soul  might  last  forever — but  not  his  violin.  So 
the  man  of  the  world  might  last  forever — but  not 
the  world.  His  Environment  is  not  eternal ;  nor 
are  even  his  correspondences — the  world  passetb. 
away  and  the  lust  thereof. 

We  find,  then,  that  man,  or  the  spiritual  man,  is 
equipped  with  two  sets  of  correspondences.  One 
set  possesses  the  quality  of  everlastingness,  the 
other  is  temporal.  But  unless  these  are  separated 
by  some  means  the  temporal  will  continue  to  im- 
pair and  hinder  the  eternal.  The  final  prepara- 
tion, therefore,  for  the  inheriting  of  Eternal  Life 
must  consist  in  the  abandonment  of  the  non-eter- 
nal elements.  These  must  be  unloosed  and  dis- 
sociated from  the  higher  elements.  And  this  is 
effected  by  a  closing  catastrophe — Death. 

Death  ensues  because  certain  relations  in  the 
organism  are  not  adjusted  to  certain  relations  in 
the  Environment.  There  will  come  a  time  in  each 
history  when  the  imperfect  corres23ondences  of  the 
organism  will  betray  themselves  by  a  failure  to 
compass  some  necessary  adjustment.  This  is  why 
Death  is  associated  with  Imperfection.  Death  is 
the    necessary   result    of    Imperfection,  and  tlia 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  45 

necessary  end  of  it.  Imperfect  correspondence 
gives  imperfect  and  uncertain  Life.  "  Perfect  cor- 
respondence," on  the  other  hand,  according  to 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  would  be  "perfect  Life.'* 
To  abolish  Death,  therefore,  all  that  would  be 
necessary  would  be  to  abolish  Imperfection.  But 
it  is  the  claim  of  Christianity  that  it  can  abolish 
Death.  And  it  is  significant  to  notice  that  it  does 
!50  by  meeting  this  very  demand  of  Science — it 
abolishes  Imperfection. 

The  part  of  the  organism  which  begins  to  get 
out  of  correspondence  with  the  Organic  Environ- 
ment is  the  only  part  whidi  is  in  vital  correspond- 
ence with  it.  Though  a  fatal  disadvantage  to  the 
natural  man  to  be  thrown  out  of  correspondence 
with  this  Environment,  it  is  of  inestimable  im- 
portance to  the  spiritual  man.  For  so  long  as  it 
is  maintained  the  way  is  barred  for  a  further 
Evolution.  And  hence  the  condition  necessary 
for  the  further  Evolution  is  tliat  the  spiritual  be 
released  from  the  natural.  That  is  to  say,  the 
condition  of  the  further  Evolution  is  Death. 
Mors  janua  VitcB,  therefore,  becomes  a  scientific 
formula.  Death,  being  the  final  sifting  of  all  the 
correspondences,  is  the  indispensable  factor  of 
the  higher  Life.  In  the  language  of  Science,  not 
less  than  of  Scripture,  "  To  die  is  gain." 

The  sifting  of  the  correspondences  is  done  by 
Nature.  This  is  its  last  and  greatest  contribution 
to  mankind.  Over  the  mouth  of  the  grave  the 
perfect  and  the  imperfect  submit  to  their  final 


46  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

separation.  Each  goes  to  its  own — earth  to  earth, 
ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust,  Spirit  to  Spirit. 
"  The  dust  shall  return  to  the  earth  as  it  was  ;  and 
the  Spirit  shall  return  uuto  God  who  gave  it." 


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